Senior Landscape Architect (Parks Design Manager)
- City of San Jose

The City of San José plays a vital economic and cultural role as the center of Silicon Valley. An incredibly diverse community of one million people who have family and business ties around the world call San José home. The City also fosters innovation with its tech-friendly policies and public-private partnerships. As a result, over 150 technology companies are located in the downtown area, including major players like Cisco, Adobe, and eBay, spread across the City. Located at the southern end of beautiful San Francisco Bay and nestled between the Diablo and Santa Cruz mountain ranges, San José is within easy reach of California’s beaches like Santa Cruz and Carmel and enjoys an abundance of good weather.

The City of San José is a full-service Charter City and operates under a Council-Manager form of government. Mayor Sam Liccardo assumed office on January 1, 2015, with a platform of restoring public safety, spending smarter, expanding economic opportunity for all of San José’s residents, and investing in the future. His philosophy is “it’s your city, and it should work for you.” Under his guidance, the City has developed a Smart City Vision with five key areas of focus for making the City of San José safer, more inclusive, user-friendly, a leader in sustainability and a model for the use of transformative technologies to enhance life in the city.

The City of San José is an equal opportunity employer encouraging workforce diversity.

About the Department

The Department of Parks, Recreation and Neighborhood Services (PRNS) is responsible for neighborhood services, recreation programming, the capital program, and maintenance of the parks and trails. The Department has a robust capital improvement program valued at $304.9 million over a five-year period. The capital team develops programs and scopes of work for individual projects and works with the Department of Public Works project implementation team to manage the Capital Improvement Program (CIP) budget which funds new and renovated facilities.

The Vision of the Department is to be a national leader of Parks and Recreation in cultivating healthy communities through quality programs and dynamic public spaces. The Department is building forward with emphasis on the following goals:

Employee engagement + workforce development

Financial sustainability

Stewardship

Placemaking: Building community by design

The CIP Team

PRNS is a dynamic, complex, and fast-paced organization and the ideal candidate will be someone that thrives in that environment.

The vision of the Capital Improvement Program (CIP) Team is to deliver beautiful community spaces that delight residents of all ages and function by design. The CIP Team oversees activities such as preparing the Department’s Capital Improvement Program budget, strategic planning, community engagement, acquiring land, rehabilitating, and replacing facilities at existing parks, trails and community centers, oversight of the design and construction of new facilities, and negotiating with residential development applicants. The team plays the role of the client-department managing outside consultants and implementation partners such as Real Estate and Public Works. There are currently approximately 160 active projects.

About the Opportunity

The CIP Team is seeking to fill one Parks Design Manager position. The Senior Landscape Architect will have oversight of up to 160 projects in various stages of design and construction at any given time. The person must possess exceptional organizational and problem-solving skills and must remain dedicated to the delivery of excellence. These skills must be demonstrated through their prior work experience. Job duties include managing the major capital program and supervising a staff of three design professionals.

The program involves notable and high-profile projects, such as a tournament quality softball facility, a new Levitt Music Pavilion at St. James Park, and the implementation of a downtown network of urban parks.

About the Responsibilities

The Parks Design Manager will play a pivotal role in advancing the mission of the PRNS by designing and overseeing construction of dynamic public spaces that will serve our diverse population for years to come. PRNS provides recreation and parks facilities that meet the needs of all ages, income levels and cultures that exist in the City. The capital team works with operations staff to ensure facilities are aesthetically pleasing and support the goals of the Department.

The Parks Design Manager will lead a team of in-house designers, Public Works design staff, and consultants in developing plans for projects of varying sizes and complexities. The candidate must have extensive experience in project management principles and have the ability to manage multiple and sometimes competing priorities.

The ideal candidate can be a landscape architect or civil engineer and should have a combination of technical and interpersonal skills and be willing to use those skills to build relationships with their co-workers, consultants, and clients. Client groups include Park Maintenance Staff and Community Center Operations Staff. The candidate must be able to communicate effectively with community groups, elected officials and subordinates in a way that allows for collaborative decision making.

The candidate should also have a broad range of experience that includes managing staff whose responsibilities include developing and executing project design scopes, performing quality control checks on construction documents and overseeing construction projects of varying complexity. While not directly responsible for construction oversight, the candidate should be capable of advising design teams on construction related judgements in a way that allows projects to proceed to completion. They must have experience developing design plans and construction documents suitable to public bidding and be familiar with the principles of urban design.

Education & Experience Requirements

Bachelor’s degree from an accredited university or college in landscape architecture, civil engineering, or similar field of study.

Five (5) years of professional architectural experience (10 years preferred).

Possession of a valid certificate as a licensed Architect or Landscape Architect in the State of California.

Possession of a valid driver’s license in the State of California.

Compensation

The salary range is $106,763.08 – $135,044.25 annually.

Benefits

Retirement – Competitive defined benefit retirement system with full reciprocity with CalPERS.

Health Insurance – The City contributes 85% towards the cost of the lowest cost plan and has several plan options.

Dental Insurance – The City contributes 100% of the premium of the lowest-priced plan for dental coverage.

Personal Time Off – Vacation is accrued initially at the rate of three weeks per year with amounts increasing to five weeks after 15 years of service. Additionally, Executive Leave of 40 hours is granted annually. Sick Leave is accrued at the rate of 8 hours per month.

Insurance – A term life policy equal to two times annual salary; long-term disability and AD&D plans are optional.

Employee Assistance Program – A comprehensive range of services through the EAP.

Important Application Information

This recruitment may be used to fill multiple positions in this, or other divisions or departments. If you are interested in employment in this classification, you should apply to ensure you are considered for additional opportunities that may utilize the applications from this recruitment.

To apply for this opportunity, please visit Koff & Associates’ website and complete an online application. As an alternative, you can mail the completed application materials to this address:

Koff & Associates

2835 7th Street

Berkeley, CA 94710

The deadline to apply is January 22, 2018.

The information contained herein does not constitute either an expressed or implied contract, and these provisions are subject to change.